I May Be a Virtual Youtuber, but I Still Go to Work-Chapter 126

Magia expected Orca to regain her usual composed demeanor quickly, even if she wavered a little.

The reason she assumed this was because the interview evaluation had stated, “She’s cute when her usual personality breaks down,” and she figured that must have been a rare scene deliberately induced by Do-hee and the HR manager through a high-pressure interview.

However, once Orca broke down, she was slow to recover.

In fact, in terms of resilience, even Miho—who had no qualms about cursing people out—was better at bouncing back.

Of course, it was also possible that this was just because Magia was a particularly persistent and vicious tormentor who had deliberately pushed Orca to her limit.

— Full-on broadcast preparation turned into a roasting session — Now that I think about it, maybe the soldiers liked her because she was cute too — She's frustrating and pitiful, but she never does anything annoying, so people end up taking care of her, huh? LOL

“No... No, that’s not it... Ugh, seriously, this is driving me crazy...”

Still, Magia hadn’t expected Orca to be completely incapable of recovering.

But it wasn’t difficult for Magia to figure out the cause. After all, Orca, despite whining, was still stubbornly clinging to the equipment that refused to work.

So, just like with Miho, Magia immediately shut down the stream and pulled out a yellow card.

“Orca, assume I’ll be there in ten minutes to fix your equipment. Until then, just talk to the viewers.”

“... Oh. Okay.”

Sure enough, Orca cleared her throat and immediately switched to conversation mode.

— Is the fail show over now?

“There was never a fail show to begin with.”

With just one sentence, she was a different person.

— The equipment is still dead though ㅠ — Did the fail energy transfer to the equipment? ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ — The streamer is a fail, so the equipment is failing too, damn — The equipment did nothing wrong! Don’t blame our poor gear!

“Ah. It’s not dead. I already did CPR on it, so once Magia gets here, it’ll come back to life.”

— C?PR — Wasn’t that a confirmed kill?

“It was not!”

It was as if she had just put down an enormous weight she had been carrying on her back.

What changed to make her act like this? Ultimately, it was a matter of responsibility.

Orca had been a soldier, and if she failed at something, her entire chain of command got cursed out along with her. She must have gone through that for years.

If she had watched Parallel streams before, she would have known that even if a similar situation happened in a real mission, Magia would have arrived to fix the problem within thirty minutes at most.

But to just dump a problem on Magia and focus on entertaining the viewers, despite knowing it was her own mistake?

Even if someone spoon-fed her that option, Orca wouldn’t have been able to take it.

From her perspective, that was no different from dumping her screw-up onto her superior.

Sure, Magia called her a colleague and spoke informally with her.

But to Orca, Magia was still at least one step above her.

A senior, the overall operations manager, the CEO’s direct line, the shadow power behind the throne, the kind of person you’d regret messing with (military equivalent: the son of a general), and so on.

After spending three years in an intensely hierarchical environment, Orca could probably list an endless number of ways to describe Magia’s position.

Even though Magia had dropped the formalities, she could still sense the subtle formality in the way Orca treated her.

It was the same way Magia acted toward the VTubers she managed.

In any case, Orca successfully held out for the full ten minutes.

When Magia finally stood up and adjusted the broadcasting equipment, resetting the settings to their original values, the microphone, which had refused to pick up input, started working again, and the unresponsive display came back to life.

Despite Orca’s reckless adjustments, the settings were all over the place, but Magia restored them effortlessly in a single go.

Watching the streaming environment get fixed in an instant, Orca couldn’t help but admire her.

“As expected of you, Manager! You’re the best!”

Magia was baffled by the sudden flattery, but this was probably one of the ways Orca had survived in the military.

If she wasn’t good at something, she had to learn, and there was no place where strategic flattery worked better than the military.

And since Orca was tall with long black hair, she gave off an imposing aura, but when cornered or sucking up to someone, she was honestly really cute.

No wonder the soldiers had recommended she become a VTuber.

... But Magia’s job today was to push Orca to the brink with no mercy, so she wasn’t about to go easy just because the flattery was cute.

— Wow, she really is a fail — Can’t do anything without her senior stepping in LOL — Just slap a yellow shoulder board on her already

“Hey, what yellow shoulder board! The only yellow board I’ve ever worn was a duty officer tag!!”

— If you’re so upset, prove you’re not a fail (5 points) — Honestly, I feel like I was less of a fail during my first month of enlistment LOL

“No, but still, basic training is... And I... I mean, in my last year of service, I was... kind of an ace...”

— LOL you don’t remember anything, do you? — So what kind of ace were you? LOL — Apparently, she was a pirate who got punched by lava and ended up with a hole in her stomach~

:: An anonymous supporter has donated 1,000 clouds! :: :: You should just admit it, LOL. You’re a fail, aren’t you? ::

“I am not!!”

:: An anonymous supporter has donated 1,000 clouds! :: :: The way you’re yelling makes it seem like you really were a fail, though. ::

“... Ah, no, I wasn’t.”

:: An anonymous supporter has donated 1,000 clouds! :: :: The lack of confidence confirms it. She’s a fail. ::

“....”

— Fail! Fail! Fail! Fail! Fail! Fail! Fail! Fail! Fail! Fail! Fail! Fail! Fail! Fail! — Admit it, admit it, admit it, admit it, admit it, admit it, admit it, admit it, admit it, admit it, admit it, admit it, admit it, admit it! — Everyone says you’re a fail, but you’re the only one denying it LOL — Boo, so pathetic, boo, so pathetic, boo, so pathetic, boo, so pathetic, boo, so pathetic, boo, so pathetic, boo, so pathetic!

In the end, the flood of chat messages was so overwhelming that Orca completely broke down.

“Hu... huu... huwaaaah... I-I... I want... to be a fail too... but... I’m... not...”

Usually, when someone starts crying, there’s some kind of buildup.

Updat𝒆d fr𝒐m freewebnσvel.cøm.

But this was so sudden that even Ena and Miho, who had been watching, were caught off guard.

Magia poked at her one last time.

— Pfft, LOL, if your mental state is this weak, your military career must’ve been a disaster. — Probably just cried all the time and never did anything right. — Tsk tsk tsk — It’s obvious.

Orca’s cries only grew louder, with no other reaction.

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

“Hwaaaaah!!!”

Meanwhile, Magia calmly jotted down her assessment while Ena and Miho tensed up, looking at her like she wasn’t even human.

Something like, ‘She’s not even a person...’ must have been running through their minds.

Normally suppresses her tears as much as possible.Probably wanted to cry ever since the equipment malfunctioned but held back well.Once she’s already crying, further provocation doesn’t change much, so it’s actually safe.But after finishing her notes, Magia finally approached Orca and patted her back.

“Calm down. If you break like this during training, what’ll you do in a real match? Viewers are sharp. They’ll notice you’re a rookie VTuber right away and spam ‘fail’ nonstop.”

“C-Cuz, hhic, I-I’m not, a fail, but they k-keep saying, I am, hhic...”

Seeing someone who was usually so precise act this vulnerable was exactly the kind of thing that turned casual viewers into hardcore fans.

But if it happened too often, the novelty would wear off, and if they saw her completely bawling like this, even fans would start feeling uncomfortable.

After all, fans wanted to see both her cool and weak moments in a balanced way.

And, ultimately, it’s more fun to mess with someone who puts up a fight.

If she crumbled every time someone called her a fail, ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) it was no fun at all.

“A person can be a fail. What’s the problem with that? You’re not a soldier anymore. Even if people call you a fail, just own it. For a streamer, being a fail is actually a strength.”

“Hhhhhh...”

“And come on, no one can be good at everything. Physically, I’m the biggest fail of all.”

At 140 cm, there were way more things she couldn’t do than things she could.

Even holding up a showerhead for too long made her arms ache.

Whether it was Magia’s mental gymnastics or just the way she talked, Orca gradually pulled herself together.

She cried fast, but she also stopped crying fast.

Even after the floodgates burst open, she sealed them shut with pure willpower.

... Wasn’t that the very essence of military discipline?

Or so Magia thought, despite knowing absolutely nothing about the military.

***

Orca didn’t change overnight.

Maybe the suggestion to let go a little had been a key factor, but as she continued streaming, she visibly improved.

It was likely because she had been relentlessly mocked as a fail multiple times.

Even when Magia deliberately sent mischievous chat messages, assuming the stream would be interrupted and restarted several times, Orca handled them with ease.

— Today’s content is just repeatedly setting up the stream, right?

“No, it’s not! Please wait just a bit longer. This time, I’ll really have it up and running soon.”

— Honestly, if I were her senior, I would’ve kicked her shins by now. — The fail of all fails~

“I’ll accept being called a fail until the setup is done. Go ahead, tease me all you want... And for the record, I’ve never been kicked. The moment that happens, it’s a direct ticket to ‘Inner Thoughts FM.’”

— Be honest, did you ever mistake the quartermaster for some random neighborhood uncle and speak informally to him? — If it was just the quartermaster, that’d be fine. She probably did it to a brigadier general too.

She even smoothly pulled off blatant lies that were obviously untrue.

“What do you mean, a brigadier general? I’ve spoken informally to a general before.”

— Insane fail, damn. — Flipping entire military units on their heads, damn.

“Well, they shouldn’t have looked exactly like a friendly old grandpa who hikes a lot...”

As the stream stabilized, the frequency of Orca’s tears dropped significantly, to the point where there was no need to mention it anymore.

At this rate, she’d probably end up crying only once every two weeks, and as she gained more streaming experience, that interval would naturally grow longer.

With that, Magia finally felt relieved and stopped pushing her so aggressively, instead sharing random military fail stories she had picked up, just to enjoy Orca’s reactions.

:: An anonymous supporter has donated 1,000 clouds! :: :: Every time dried pollack was served, I’d sneak it onto my squad leader’s tray while he was off getting hot water for ramen. He always left the pollack uneaten anyway, so no one ever noticed. LOL ::

“That’s actually kind of cute.”

:: An anonymous supporter has donated 1,000 clouds! :: :: My superior told me to use his shampoo whenever mine ran out, so I used it for free until he was discharged. LOL ::

“At least buy your own at some point...”

:: An anonymous supporter has donated 1,000 clouds! :: :: Got stuck cleaning the officer’s mess hall, did a ‘triple axel’ while sliding with a mop, and ended up knocking out a major general’s teeth with my head. ::

“KYAAAAAH!! That’s insane! Completely insane!!”

A reaction worth savoring.

If done regularly, it might even get a great response from military veterans.

Of course, since Magia had never served in the military herself, she’d need some review from the former service members in the company.

In the end, both Miho and Orca had worked hard within a single day to overcome their weaknesses and actually showed results.

However, what Magia didn’t realize was that their determination wasn’t solely because they wanted a successful debut.

It was also because they wanted Magia to suffer just as much as they had.

That bubbling resentment, the feeling of wanting to pay back a devilish senior for all the torment—wasn’t it just like how soldiers dream of getting revenge on their training officers?

Thus, the training wrapped up quickly, leaving Friday completely open.

And on Friday morning, as expected, it was Magia’s turn.

The second-gen members had been so eager to roast her that they had prepared multiple pages of chat samples on A4 paper.

As she passed through the giggling second-gen members, Magia wordlessly sat down at the makeshift streaming desk.

Her expression was one of complete acceptance, as if she had reached enlightenment.

Seeing this, Miho chuckled and said, “Heh... Have you already given up? Like, no matter what we throw at you, you’ll just take it?”

Magia simply shrugged and explained what was about to happen.

“I’ll play the role of the target until lunchtime. Hit me with whatever you’ve got. Even things that would normally get you banned in a stream are fair game. I used aggressive chat against you guys while considering all possible angles, so this is your chance.”

Ena, half-lidding her eyes, warned her, “Magia, don’t take this too lightly. We prepared a lot for this.”

Orca didn’t say much, but out of the three, she had brought the thickest stack of paper.

As if silently declaring, You made me sob my heart out with your fail-roasting, so take your punishment.

Thus, Magia’s stream began.

[ Fantasia (April 2025) ]

#Parallel #Magia #Another

“Huh? Fantasia?”

“Ugh...?”

“?”

For her mock stream, Magia chose a topic she was most confident in.

Instead of creating an entirely new concept, she brought an early draft of her monthly review series on first-gen members’ clips.

She didn’t have the time or energy to come up with something new, and upon reflection, this was the content she was most familiar with.

The second-gen members had all assumed she would choose something related to Momo.

But now, they were completely thrown off.

After all, malicious remarks only worked if they matched the content.

At this rate, all the Momo-related insults they had prepared would be useless.

‘LOL, isn’t Momo basically a washed-up streamer now? Admit it?’

‘Momo and Mugun are secretly dating behind the scenes. I saw it myself.’

‘Honestly, at this point, isn’t Momo just Magia’s underling? ^Ta-dah!^’

All these carefully prepared lines instantly turned into nothing but scrap paper.

And they couldn’t even complain, because none of them had revealed their content in advance either.

What’s worse, Magia had written all of her roasts on the spot, without preparing any files or references.

How could they accuse her of cowardly dodging when she was just doing a regular first-gen content review?

“——Alright, let’s officially take a look at the April clips.”

With that, the second-gen members had no choice but to improvise their attacks within the context of this content.

The most sharp-tongued among them, Miho, took the first shot.

Her target: a clip of Rain dominating a solo squad match.

— Honestly, Rain is better at Battle Call than Momo now. LOL.

Seeing that, the other two quickly followed suit, inspired by the direction.

— To be fair, Momo only ever got carried by Magia. LOL.

— Didn’t she cling to Mugun like that too? LOL.

Magia read the chat and, in a monotone voice, responded in a way that left the second-gen speechless.

“Honestly, I do think Rain has gotten better recently. Sharp observation. I mean, this is probably the difference between someone who always rode my bus and someone who kept trying to make it on their own...”

“?”

“...?”

She reinforced her position further.

“And for the record, the CEO didn’t cling to Mugun—Mugun clung to the CEO. That’s a historical fact, even recorded in Goguryeo Watermelon Chronicles. The only reason I joined his in-house tournament was because he kept inserting himself into our space. If Mugun has any objections, he’s welcome to come on our stream as a guest and clarify.”

It sounded like she was defending herself, but not at all.

In reality, Magia had just given Mugun an automatic one loss.

Not just any loss, but a loss that could generate major buzz through a potential collab stream.

Even after that, the second-gen members kept trying to poke at her, but every attempt ended in failure.

— Honestly, Momo barely streams these days. Maybe it’s time for her to graduate.

“Not a bad idea. That way, I’d be the only one seeing her at work. Total win for me.”

— Momo’s only a VTuber because she’s ugly as hell. LOL.

“...Pfft. Ah. That wasn’t a laugh. Sure, I guess you could think that. Anyway, you’re getting banned, and I’ll keep the CEO’s looks to myself.”

— Honestly, these days, I like Magia more than Momo.

“Yeah, well, I like my CEO more than I like the viewers.”

A fortress, utterly impenetrable.

Magia didn’t let a single one of the second-gen’s roasts land.

Not a single attack was ignored. She countered every blow precisely, yet without saying anything that could cause problems on a live broadcast.

Eventually, the second-gen members surrendered.

Ena, who had been leading the charge, lowered her head in defeat.

“We lost... A total loss...”

Magia then added something that left them even more bewildered.

“But, honestly, all this talk about the CEO is starting to get to me.”

“...?”

Spoken by the very person who had kept a poker face for the past four hours.